Ask Me No Questions, I'll Tell You No Lies
by Nemesis dan Impyrean
Summary: "Athena spawn, the first to jump? Unheard of." The boy looks at her. "There's a reason why she left them, Clarisse," he says. His voice is deep, rumbling like a storm. "What's your name?" I don't know why I hesitate. But 'Annabeth' just doesn't sound right anymore. "Beth," I say firmly. Three sets his hand on my back and says, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."
1. Pilot

I don't think. I just bend my knees and jump.

The air howls in my ears as the ground surges toward me, growing and expanding, or I surge toward the ground, my heart pounding so fast it hurts, every muscle in my body tensing as the falling sensation drags at my stomach. The hole surrounds me and I drop into darkness.

I hit something hard. It gives way beneath me and cradles my body. The impact knocks the wind out of me and I wheeze, struggling to breathe again. My arms and legs sting.

A net. There is a net at the bottom of the hole. I look up at the building and laugh, half relieved and half hysterical. My body shakes and I cover my face with my hands. I just jumped off a roof.

I have to stand on solid ground again. I see a few hands stretching out to me at the edge of the net, so I grab the first one I can reach and pull myself across. I roll off, and I would have fallen face-first onto a wood floor if he had not caught me.

"He" is the young man attached to the hand I grabbed. He is young, barely a year older than me - slim, but muscled. His hair is black, ruffled and unruly but reflecting the gloomy light. His eyes are a deep green… Like the sea I've once read about.

His hands grip my arms, but he releases me a moment after I stand upright again.

"Thank you," I say.

We stand on a platform ten feet above the ground. Around us is an open cavern.

"Can't believe it," a voice says from behind him. It belongs to a dark-haired girl with three silver rings through her right eyebrow. She smirks at me. "Athena spawn, the first to jump? Unheard of."

"There's a reason why she left them, Clarisse," he says. His voice is deep, rumbling like a storm. "What's your name?"

"Um…" I don't know why I hesitate. But "Annabeth" just doesn't sound right anymore.

"Think about it," he says, a faint smile curling his lips. "You don't get to pick again."

A new place, a new name. I can be remade here.

"Beth," I say firmly.

"Beth," Clarisse repeats, grinning. "Make the announcement, Three."

The boy - Three - looks over his shoulder and shouts, "First jumper - Beth!"

A crowd materializes from the darkness as my eyes adjust. They cheer and pump their fists, and then another person drops into the net. Her screams follow her down. Thalia. Everyone laughs, but they follow their laughter with more cheering.

Three sets his hand on my back and says, "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

* * *

When all the initiates stand on solid ground again, Clarisse and Three lead us down a narrow tunnel. The walls are made of stone, and the ceiling slopes, so I feel like I am descending deep into the heart of the earth. The tunnel is lit at long intervals, so in the dark space between each dim lamp, I fear that I am lost until a shoulder bumps mine. In the circles of light I am safe again.

The boy in front of me stops abruptly, and I smack into him, hitting my nose on his shoulder. I stumble back and rub my nose as I recover my senses. The whole crowd has stopped, and our three leaders stand in front of us, arms folded.

"This is where we divide," Clarisse says. "The Camp Halfblood-born initiates are with me. I assume you don't need a tour of the place."

She smiles and beckons toward the Camp Halfblood-born initiates. They break away from the group and dissolve into the shadows. I watch the last heel pass out of the light and look at those of us who are left. Most of the initiates were from Camp Halfblood, so only nine people remain. Of those, I am the only Athena transfer, and there are no Demeter transfers. The rest are from Erudite and, surprisingly, Zeus. It must require bravery to be honest all the time. I wouldn't know.

Three addresses us next. "Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks, I am your instructor," he says. "My name is Three."

Thalia asks, "Three? Like the number?"

"Yes," Three says. "Is there a problem?"

"No."

"Good. We're about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It—"

Thalia snickers. "The Pit? Clever name."

Three walks up to Thalia and leans his face close to hers. His eyes narrow, and for a second he just stares at her.

"What's your name?" he asks quietly.

"Thalia," she squeaks.

"Well, Thalia, if I wanted to put up with Zeus spawn smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction," he hisses. "The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. Got that?"

She nods.

Three starts toward the shadow at the end of the tunnel. The crowd of initiates moves on in silence.

"What a jerk," she mumbles.

"I guess he doesn't like to be laughed at," I reply.

It would probably be wise to be careful around Three, I realize. He seemed placid to me on the platform, but something about that stillness makes me wary now.

Three pushes a set of double doors open, and we walk into the place he called "the Pit."

"Oh," whispers Thalia. "I get it."

"Pit" is the best word for it. It is an underground cavern so huge I can't see the other end of it from where I stand, at the bottom. Uneven rock walls rise several stories above my head. Built into the stone walls are places for food, clothing, supplies, leisure activities. Narrow paths and steps carved from rock connect them. There are no barriers to keep people from falling over the side.

A slant of orange light stretches across one of the rock walls. Forming the roof of the Pit are panes of glass and, above them, a building that lets in sunlight. It must have looked like just another city building when we passed it on the train.

Blue lanterns dangle at random intervals above the stone paths, similar to the ones that lit the Choosing room. They grow brighter as the sunlight dies.

People are everywhere, all dressed in orange shirts, all shouting and talking, expressive, gesturing. I don't see any elderly people in the crowd. Are there any old members? Do they not last that long, or are they just sent away when they can't jump off moving trains anymore?

A group of children run down a narrow path with no railing, so fast my heart pounds, and I want to scream at them to slow down before they get hurt. A memory of the orderly Athena streets appears in my mind: a line of people on the right passing a line of people on the left, small smiles and inclined heads and silence. My stomach squeezes. But there is something wonderful about the Camp Halfblood chaos.

"If you follow me," says Three, "I'll show you the chasm."

He waves us forward. Three's appearance seems tame from the front, by Camp Halfblood standards, but when he turns around, I see a tattoo peeking out from the collar of his T-shirt. He leads us to the right side of the Pit, which is conspicuously dark. I squint and see that the floor I stand on now ends at an iron barrier. As we approach the railing, I hear a roar—water, fast-moving water, crashing against rocks.

I look over the side. The floor drops off at a sharp angle, and several stories below us is a river. Gushing water strikes the wall beneath me and sprays upward. To my left, the water is calmer, but to my right, it is white, battling with rock.

"The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!" Three shouts. "A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again. You've been warned."

"This is incredible," says Thalia, as we all move away from the railing.

"Incredible is the word," I say, nodding.

Three leads the group of initiates across the Pit toward a gaping hole in the wall. The room beyond is well-lit enough that I can see where we're going: a dining hall full of people and clattering silverware. When we walk in, the Camp Halfblood inside stand. They applaud. They stamp their feet. They shout. The noise surrounds me and fills me. Thalia smiles, and a second later, so do I.

We look for empty seats. Thalia and I discover a mostly empty table at the side of the room, and I find myself sitting between her and Three. In the center of the table is a platter of food I don't recognize: circular pieces of meat wedged between round bread slices. I pinch one between my fingers, unsure what to make of it.

Three nudges me with his elbow.

"It's beef," he says. "Put this on it." He passes me a small bowl full of red sauce.

"You've never had a hamburger before?" asks Thalia, her eyes wide.

"No," I say. "Is that what it's called?"

"Athena spawns eat plain food," Three says, nodding at Thalia.

"Why?" she asks.

I shrug. "Extravagance is considered self-indulgent and unnecessary."

She smirks. "No wonder you left."

"Yeah," I say, rolling my eyes. "It was just because of the food."

The corner of Three's mouth twitches.

The doors to the cafeteria open, and a hush falls over the room. I look over my shoulder. A young man walks in, and it is quiet enough that I can hear his footsteps. His face is scarred in so many places I lose count, and his hair is long, blonde, and ragged. But that isn't what makes him look menacing. It is the coldness of his eyes as they sweep across the room.

"Who's that?" hisses Thalia.

"His name is Luke," says Three. "He's a Camp Halfblood leader."

"Seriously? But he's so young," Thalia complimented.

Three gives her a grave look. "Age doesn't matter here."

I can tell she's about to ask what I want to ask: Then what does matter? But Luke's eyes stop scanning the room, and he starts toward our table and drops into the seat next to Three. He offers no greeting, so neither do we.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce me?" he asks, nodding to Thalia and me.

Three says, "This is Beth and Thalia."

"Ooh, an Athena spawn," says Luke, smirking at me. His smile pulls at the scars in his lips, making the pale skin turn white, and I wince. "We'll see how long you last."

I mean to say something—to assure him that I will last, maybe—but words fail me. I don't understand why, but I don't want Luke to look at me any longer than he already has. I don't want him to look at me ever again.

He taps his fingers against the table. His knuckles are scabbed over, right where they would split if he punched something too hard.

"What have you been doing lately, Three?" he asks.

Three lifts a shoulder. "Nothing, really," he says.

Are they friends? My eyes flick between Luke and Three. Everything Luke did—sitting here, asking about Three—suggests that they are, but the way Three sits, tense as pulled wire, suggests they are something else. Rivals, maybe, but how could that be, if Luke is a leader and Three is not?

"Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don't show up," Luke says. "He requested that I find out what's going on with you."

Three looks at Luke for a few seconds before saying, "Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I currently hold."

"So he wants to give you a job."

The scars in Luke's eyebrow are lined up like claw marks. Maybe Luke perceives Three as a potential threat to his position. My mother says that those who want power and get it live in terror of losing it. That's why we have to give power to those who do not want it.

"So it would seem," Three says.

"And you aren't interested."

"I haven't been interested for two years."

"Well," says Luke. "Let's hope he gets the point, then."

He claps Three on the shoulder, a little too hard, and gets up. When he walks away, I slouch immediately. I had not realized that I was so tense.

"Are you two…friends?" I say, unable to contain my curiosity.

"We were in the same initiate class," he says. "He transferred from Hermes."

All thoughts of being careful around Three leave me. "Were you a transfer too?"

"I thought I would only have trouble with the Zeus spawn asking too many questions," he says coldly. "Now I've got Athena spawns, too?"

"It must be because you're so approachable," I say flatly. "You know. Like a bed of nails."

He stares at me, and I don't look away. He isn't a dog, but the same rules apply. Looking away is submissive. Looking him in the eye is a challenge. It's my choice.

Heat rushes into my cheeks. What will happen when this tension breaks?

But he just says, "Careful, Beth."

My stomach drops like I just swallowed a stone. A Camp Halfblood member at another table calls out Three's name, and I turn to Thalia. She raises both eyebrows.

"What?" I ask.

"I'm developing a theory."

"And it is?"

She picks up her hamburger, grins, and says, "That you have a death wish."


	2. He Who Fights and Runs Away

After dinner, Three disappears without a word. Luke leads us down a series of hallways without telling us where we're going. I don't know why a Halfblood leader would be responsible for a group of initiates, but maybe it is just for tonight.

At the end of each hallway is a blue lamp, but between them it's dark, and I have to be careful not to stumble over uneven ground. Thalia walks beside me in silence. No one told us to be quiet, but none of us speak.

Luke stops in front of a wooden door and folds his arms. We gather around him.

"For those of you who don't know, my name is Luke," he says. "I am one of five leaders of Camp Halfblood. We take the initiation process very seriously here, so I volunteered to oversee most of your training."

The thought makes me nauseous. The idea that a leader will oversee our initiation is bad enough, but the fact that it's Luke makes it seem even worse.

"Some ground rules," he says. "You have to be in the training room by eight o'clock every day. Training takes place every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you like after six. You will also get some time off between each stage of initiation."

The phrase "do whatever you like" sticks in my mind. At home, I could never do what I wanted, not even for an evening. I had to think of other people's needs first. I don't even know what I like to do.

"You are only permitted to leave the compound when accompanied by a Halfblood," Luke adds. "Behind this door is the room where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks. You will notice that there are ten beds and only nine of you. We anticipated that a higher proportion of you would make it this far."

"But we started with twelve," protests Thalia. I close my eyes and wait for the reprimand. She needs to learn to stay quiet.

"There is always at least one transfer who doesn't make it to the compound," says Luke, picking at his cuticles. He shrugs. "Anyway, in the first stage of initiation, we keep transfers and Halfblood-born initiates separate, but that doesn't mean you are evaluated separately. At the end of initiation, your rankings will be determined in comparison with the Halfblood-born initiates. And they are better than you are already. So I expect—"

"Rankings?" asks the mousy-haired Erudite girl to my right. "Why are we ranked?"

Luke smiles, and in the blue light, his smile looks wicked, like it was cut into his face with a knife.

"Your ranking serves two purposes," he says. "The first is that it determines the order in which you will select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available."

My stomach tightens. I know by looking at his smile, like I knew the second I entered the aptitude test room, that something bad is about to happen.

"The second purpose," he says, "is that only the top ten initiates are made members."

Pain stabs my stomach. We all stand still as statues. And then Thalia says, "What?"

"There are eleven Halfblood-borns, and nine of you," Luke continues. "Three initiates will be cut at the end of stage one. The remainder will be cut after the final test."

That means that even if we make it through each stage of initiation, six initiates will not be members. I see Thalia look at me from the corner of my eye, but I can't look back at her. My eyes are fixed on Luke and will not move.

My odds, as the smallest initiate, as the only Athena transfer, are not good.

"What do we do if we're cut?" Ethan says.

"You leave the Halfblood compound," says Luke indifferently, "and live without… divine protection."

The mousy-haired girl clamps her hand over her mouth and stifles a sob. I remember the god-forsaken man with the gray teeth, snatching the bag of apples from my hands. His dull, staring eyes. But instead of crying, like the girl, I feel colder. Harder.

I will be a member. I will.

"But that's…not fair!" the broad-shouldered Zeus girl, Molly, says. Even though she sounds angry, she looks terrified. "If we had known—"

"Are you saying that if you had known this before the Choosing Ceremony, you wouldn't have chosen Halfblood?" Luke snaps. "Because if that's the case, you should get out now. If you are really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward."

Luke pushes the door to the dormitory open.

"You chose us," he says. "Now we have to choose you."

I lie in bed and listen to nine people breathing.

I have never slept in the same room as a boy before, but here I have no other option, unless I want to sleep in the hallway. Everyone else changed into the clothes the Halfblood provided for us, but I sleep in my Abnegation clothes, which still smell like soap and fresh air, like home.

I used to have my own room. I could see the front lawn from the window, and beyond it, the foggy skyline. I am used to sleeping in silence.

Heat swells behind my eyes as I think of home, and when I blink, a tear slips out. I cover my mouth to stifle a sob.

I can't cry, not here. I have to calm down.

It will be all right here. I can look at my reflection whenever I want. I can befriend Thalia, and cut my hair short, and let other people clean up their own messes.

My hands shake and the tears come faster now, blurring my vision.

It doesn't matter that the next time I see my parents, on Visiting Day, they will barely recognize me—if they come at all. It doesn't matter that I ache at even a split-second memory of their faces. Even Caleb's, despite how much his secrets hurt me. I match my inhales to the inhales of the other initiates, and my exhales to their exhales. It doesn't matter.

A strangled sound interrupts the breathing, followed by a heavy sob. Bed springs squeal as a large body turns, and a pillow muffles the sobs, but not enough. They come from the bunk next to mine—they belong to a Zeus boy, Frank, the largest and broadest of all the initiates. He is the last person I expected to break down.

His feet are just inches from my head. I should comfort him—I should want to comfort him, because I was raised that way. Instead I feel disgust. Someone who looks so strong shouldn't act so weak. Why can't he just keep his crying quiet like the rest of us?

I swallow hard.

If my mother knew what I was thinking, I know what look she would give me. The corners of her mouth turned down. Her eyebrows set low over her eyes—not scowling, almost tired. I drag the heel of my hand over my cheeks.

Frank sobs again. I almost feel the sound grate in my own throat. He is just inches away from me—I should touch him.

No. I put my hand down and roll onto my side, facing the wall. No one has to know that I don't want to help him. I can keep that secret buried. My eyes shut and I feel the pull of sleep, but every time I come close, I hear Frank again.

Maybe my problem isn't that I can't go home. I will miss my mother and father and Caleb and evening firelight and the clack of my mother's knitting needles, but that is not the only reason for this hollow feeling in my stomach.

My problem might be that even if I did go home, I wouldn't belong there, among people who give without thinking and care without trying.

The thought makes me grit my teeth. I gather the pillow around my ears to block out Frank's crying, and fall asleep with a circle of moisture pressed to my cheek.

* * *

"The first thing you will learn today is how to shoot a gun. The second thing is how to win a fight." Three presses a gun into my palm without looking at me and keeps walking. "Thankfully, if you are here, you already know how to get on and off a moving train, so I don't need to teach you that."

I shouldn't be surprised that the Halfblood expect us to hit the ground running, but I anticipated more than six hours of rest before the running began. My body is still heavy from sleep.

"Initiation is divided into three stages. We will measure your progress and rank you according to your performance in each stage. The stages are not weighed equally in determining your final rank, so it is possible, though difficult, to drastically improve your rank over time."

I stare at the weapon in my hand. Never in my life did I expect to hold a gun, let alone fire one. It feels dangerous to me, as if just by touching it, I could hurt someone.

"We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear," says Three. "Therefore each stage of initiation is intended to prepare you in a different way. The first stage is primarily physical; the second, primarily emotional; the third, primarily mental."

"But what…" Ethan yawns through his words. "What does firing a gun have to do with…bravery?"

Three flips the gun in his hand, presses the barrel to Ethan's forehead, and clicks a bullet into place. Ethan freezes with his lips parted, the yawn dead in his mouth.

"Wake. Up," Three snaps. "You are holding a loaded gun, you idiot. Act like it."

He lowers the gun. Once the immediate threat is gone, Ethan's green eyes harden. I'm surprised he can stop himself from responding, after speaking his mind all his life in Zeus, but he does, his cheeks red.

"And to answer your question…you are far less likely to soil your pants and cry for your mother if you're prepared to defend yourself." Three stops walking at the end of the row and turns on his heel. "This is also information you may need later in stage one. So, watch me."

He faces the wall with the targets on it—one square of plywood with three red circles on it for each of us. He stands with his feet apart, holds the gun in both hands, and fires. The bang is so loud it hurts my ears. I crane my neck to look at the target. The bullet went through the middle circle.

I turn to my own target. My family would never approve of me firing a gun. They would say that guns are used for self-defense, if not violence, and therefore they are self-serving.

I push my family from my mind, set my feet shoulder-width apart, and delicately wrap both hands around the handle of the gun. It's heavy and hard to lift away from my body, but I want it to be as far from my face as possible. I squeeze the trigger, hesitantly at first and then harder, cringing away from the gun. The sound hurts my ears and the recoil sends my hands back, toward my nose. I stumble, pressing my hand to the wall behind me for balance. I don't know where my bullet went, but I know it's not near the target.

I fire again and again and again, and none of the bullets come close.

"Statistically speaking," the Apollo boy next to me—his name is Will—says, grinning at me, "you should have hit the target at least once by now, even by accident." He is blond, with shaggy hair and a crease between his eyebrows.

"Is that so," I say without inflection.

"Yeah," he says. "I think you're actually defying nature."

I grit my teeth and turn toward the target, resolving to at least stand still. If I can't master the first task they give us, how will I ever make it through stage one?

I squeeze the trigger, hard, and this time I'm ready for the recoil. It makes my hands jump back, but my feet stay planted. A bullet hole appears at the edge of the target, and I raise an eyebrow at Will.

"So you see, I'm right. The stats don't lie," he says.

I smile a little.

It takes me five rounds to hit the middle of the target, and when I do, a rush of energy goes through me. I am awake, my eyes wide open, my hands warm. I lower the gun. There is power in controlling something that can do so much damage—in controlling something, period.

Maybe I do belong here.


End file.
